It is official. Javier Sansó will be lining up at the start of the next Vendée Globe aboard a boat in the colours of his sponsor, Acciona. She is in fact the first 60-foot zero emissions ocean-racing boat.
The Group Acciona, the Spanish infrastructures and renewable energies group, announced today it would be taking part in the 2012 Vendée Globe. This will be the first time in its history that the starting-line includes a monohull without a single litre of fuel on board. The boat’s skipper will be Javier Sansó, (aka “Bubi”), a yachtsman with a long and distinguished track record of top-level yacht racing, including a number of Open 60 races such as the Jacques Vabre 2001 and 2003, and the Vendée Globe 2000-2001. His most recent sporting achievement was the Barcelona World Race 2007-2008, in which he finished fourth overall.
A monohull from the latest generation
His new monohull designed by the Owen Clarke Design Studio and built in New Zealand at the Southern Ocean Marine shipyard, features Acciona-developed innovations. The boat will be powered by two 350W wind turbine generators, solar panels integrated in 12 square meters of the yacht’s hull and hydrodynamic power, obtained by two 400W generators with propellers that use the yacht’s movement in the water. The energy generated by these three sources can be stored in a bank of batteries to ensure the vessel’s power source. A system based on hydrogen fuel cells is on hand to provide the yacht with emergency power. This energy system introduces a critical variable in a race like the Vendée Globe: Javier Sansó will need to manage the capture, storage and consumption of energy to use energy as efficiently as possible.
The boat was officially presented in Barcelona by Acciona Chairman & CEO José Manuel Entrecanales during the 2011 Global Clean Energy Conference. The boat was christened by the 2011 Global Clean Energy Conference’s Chairman Kavita Maharaj and will serve as an example of how renewable energies can offer a real alternative to conventional energies.
